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FS Finance System Transformation Plan Part 1: Source Systems
Transforming existing financial services financial reporting applications is very challenging, particularly at scale. The stakes are high. The data in them has been gathered at great cost, the systems [...]
Featured Posts
Three Year Anniversary Bloopers: Choosing a Vlog Topic
After three years of nearly weekly episodes of Conversations with [...]
Bloopers: Two Year’s of Conversations with Kip
Today marks the two year anniversary of Conversations with Kip. [...]
Previous Posts
Shared Ledgers, Trust, Fast Offerings, and Social Commerce
Kip M. Twitchell © 2024 All Rights Reserved. This paper was presented at the 2024 BYU Accounting Research Symposium on September 20, 2024. Abstract Today’s shared ledgers are based upon lack of trust between parties, [...]
A Conversation with Neil Beesley, an Assembler Developer
Through a most of my career I have been able to have association with a special kind of IT professionals: those that are confident enough to work in assembler programming. Assembler languages are those [...]
BSV Blockchain Scale and Performance
I have recently become more deeply involved in the BSV Blockchain, joining the Technical Standards Committee and involved in assisting Tokenized.com in their product development. I was invited to join their Global Conference in [...]
Finance Transform in Financial Services: Part 3 Data Considerations
The third in a series of videos about financial system transformation in financial services, this time dealing directly with the data that must come from the source systems and be placed in the platform, [...]
Finance Transform in Financial Services: Part 2 Platform Considerations
The second in a series of videos about financial system transformation in financial services, this time deal with platform considerations. In the last video, we talked about source system data considerations--getting your data into [...]
FS Finance System Transformation Plan Part 1: Source Systems
Transforming existing financial services financial reporting applications is very challenging, particularly at scale. The stakes are high. The data in them has been gathered at great cost, the systems developed and tuned typically over [...]
An Approach to In Situ Analytics Against Source System Data
"Are you getting an accurate view of your enterprise? Operational data can be a valuable source of analytics, but it is often inaccessible in critical applications residing on the mainframe. An unexpected reporting solution [...]
Open Mainframe Predictions for 2022 and Beyond
I was invited to join Alan Shimel from Techstrong Group, and John Mertic from the Linux Foundation's Open Mainframe Project to give my view of what is happening on the mainframe, and give a [...]
The Mainframe, Open Source and Renewal of Financial Systems
I was asked to do a presentation for the Linux Foundation's Open Mainframe Project annual convention Summit. This presentation discusses a key z/OS advantage, nearly eliminated hardware failures, how open source is changing the [...]
I am a Mainframer
In January 2021 I talked with Steven Dickens about what it means to work on the mainframe, making me a mainframer. You can listen to the podcast here: Steven Dickens: Hello and welcome. My [...]
Reflection, Unanswered Questions and Goals for Financial System Transformation
Questions Today marks five years since the start of Conversations with Kip Vlog. In celebration, I'm releasing two videos, one is a bit in the tradition of the bloopers of the past, showing that [...]
Data Quality Questions
Dillon Pappenfuss of Financial Executives International, asked me a set of question on Data Quality. In the videos below, I give my answers to his questions. The video answers to all of Dillion's questions are [...]
Project Management Basics
Today's Conversation with Kip covers my simple view of project management. It can be viewed as the simple lists of; What, or a Scope DiagramWho, an Org ChartWhen, a Timeline and How Much, a BudgetWhat [...]
Computers Explained: An Expanded Analogy
In Computers Explained: The Meeting Analogy, I gave a basic description of how a computer works. I then added to that in Computers Explained: Big Data Implications how analytical processes impact computers. Today, I expand [...]
Attributes of Financial Reporting and Financial Reporters
Today I release a series of videos about attributes of high quality financial reporting, based upon accounting standards. I also add to these my view of attributes of good accountants; what kinds of characteristics make [...]
Introduction to GenevaERS Open Source Project
This episode of Conversations with Kip gives an introduction to the IBM Scalable Architecture for Financial Reporting (SAFR) as it was recently contributed to the Linux Foundation's Open Mainframe Project as the GenevaERS Project. This [...]
The Mainframe, Open Source And Renewal of Financial Systems
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip goes more to a question of platform than I have ever discussed in my series before. This is brought on with recent experiences with the Linux Foundation's Open [...]
Powerful Railroad and Processing Engines
This week's episode likens our powerful financial systems to the powerful locomotives of the early 20th Century. Powerful Railroad Engines In my semi-biographical textbook "Balancing Act: A Practical Approach to Business Event Based Insights" I [...]
Outlandish Prediction: Demise of the G/L
This week's video makes an outlandish prediction: that in the future companies will not have general ledgers, but instead use the increased compute capacities available from today's ubiquitous computers to maintain much more granular ledgers, [...]
Do Sub-Ledger Balances Add Up to GL Balances?
Often discussions with others result in going back to the basic principle I talked about the relationship of the Data Warehouse to the General Ledger. That discussion focused on activity, the thing that creates journal [...]
Fail Fast POC: Choosing and IDE and Language
Objective One day in June 2020 I was encouraged to start a new POC. In simple terms, the idea was to read an XML file containing the processing specification for a z/OS tool, GenevaERS, and [...]
Data Models Matter in Financial Reporting
On a large project one time a CFO had heard something about troubles in the project developing from using a "fully normalized data model" and asked me what that meant, and why it created problems. [...]
Metric Engine Step-Up: A Swimming Pool Example
A couple of years ago a friend was continuing to try to help Risk and Finance effectively coordinate their use of data, and asked me how would I get started on helping them. I noted [...]
z/OS on Vagrant: A Personal Mainframe
Building on other POC projects, including the short Raspberry Pi experimentation, and the longer Universal Ledger Infrastructure project, I have recently experimented with a personal mainframe system. These systems are not new developments, having been [...]
Financial Auditing: Quality Control for Metric Engines
This week's episode discusses Financial Auditing, and why it is important to financial reporting; it is the quality assurance process. Any metric engine or report process should have some method to test quality of the [...]
Excel: The Scooter of Financial Reporting
In a number of my videos I've been on different modes of transportation, including a plane, a train, a taxi, a bus, a bike, and even an ill-fate attempt to video while walking. Today's video [...]
Accounting and Bookkeeping Series Review
In the last video of the bookkeeping series, I briefly review the steps of bookkeeping. If you're interested in a more in depth look, have a look at the accompanying textbook Balancing Act: A Practical [...]
Accounting Cycle Step 5: Create Reports
The last step of the Accounting Cycle is step 5, creating financial reports, including the Balance Sheet and Income Statement. If you're interested in a more in depth look, have a look at the accompanying [...]
Accounting Cycle Step 4: Trial Balance
Discusses step 4 of the Accounting Cycle, creating a trial balance, and its relationship to the general ledger before it and reporting processes after it. If you're interested in a more in depth look, have [...]
The Value of Data Part 2: The Data Supply Chain
In the previous post, The Value of Data Part 1: Business Functionality I discussed the costly process of capturing attributes of business events, and the value in understanding them over time. In this post I'll [...]
The Value of Data Part 1: Business Functionality
Optimizations verses Functionality An expert recently said to me that the most important optimizations of systems need to be identified at the appropriate time. Trying to identify and create them too early can affect the [...]
Accounting Cycle Step 3: Post to Ledger
This week's post discusses step 3 of the Accounting Cycle, posting to the general ledger, the nature of roll forward balances and accounting periods. If you're interested in a more in depth look, have a [...]
Accounting Cycle Step 2: Create Journal Entries
Discusses step 2 of the Accounting Cycle, creating journal entries, the "flow" of data through accounting, and the purpose of debits and credits. If you're interested in a more in depth look, have a look [...]
Accounting Cycle Step 1: Execute Business Events
This week we discuss step 1 of the Accounting Cycle, executing business events, and the relationship to financial transactions and the world of measurement. If you're interested in a more in depth look, have a [...]
Introduction to the Accounting Cycle
This week's post introduces the accounting cycle. Creating a single balance sheet as of today, or an income statement that reflects one's activity over the week is not too difficult to do. But financial reporting [...]
Introduction to the Income Statement
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip discusses what an Income Statement is, why it is important, how it is made and its relationship to the Balance Sheet. Although almost all financial analytics begins with [...]
Universal Ledger POC Results: Potential Infrastructure Software
In the spring of 2019 I undertook a study of potential infrastructure components that could be used to construct a Universal Ledger System. Here's a report of that effort: Components chosen included: Vagrant ContainersScala as [...]
Introduction to the Balance Sheet
Today's episode discusses what a balance sheet is, why it is important, and how it is made. All financial analysis begins with a balance. Your bank accounts provide an excellent example. When you log into [...]
Intro to the Bookkeeping Series
This week I'm releasing publicly a series of videos on basic bookkeeping and accounting, which will cover the balance sheet, income statement, and accounting cycle. The accompanying textbook is available here for download: Balancing Act: [...]
Experimenting with a Raspberry Pi
Security concerns caused my company to disable the ability to write to a USB drive on the machine I use for work. They provide backup and cloud based storage facilities, but my requirements for local [...]
Finance Inventory: Master Files
This week's episodes builds on an idea from Episode 98 Balances are the Inventory of Finance. Where are these balances maintained? Many are maintained in things called ledgers. But they are also at times simply [...]
Introduction to FPEM: Financial Period End Management
Over the last six months I've worked with a new vendor in the financial system space, Svayam Infoware, headed by Rakesh Kant. His platform has many of the characteristics I've talked about in my vlog, [...]
Innovation Theater as Opposed to Real Innovation
An actual security expert one time described much of what happens in airport security as "security theater," done in a very public way to give the impression of a lot of security when in fact, [...]
Sharealedger.org: My Report to Dr. Bill McCarthy on REA Progress
Last week I was invited to be a guest lecturer to Dr. William E. McCarthy's Michigan State University graduate students. As noted in my textbook, Balancing Act: A Practical Approach to Business Event Based Insights, [...]
Pressure to Change: Conversation with Eric Denna Part 7
Today's conversation is the last in a series with Dr. Eric Denna. In this episode Eric highlights the difficulty in changing the basic way our financial systems work, but also noting that they are ripe [...]
Financial System Changes: Conversation with Eric Denna Part 6
Continuing my conversation with Dr. Eric Denna, in this episode we highlight the difficulty in changing the basic way our financial systems work, but also noting that they are ripe for disruption. I noted years [...]
Be a Learner
In this episode, Eric shares one of his favorite quotes, by Eric Hoffer: "In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no [...]
Scala on z
In this episode of Coding with Kip, I demonstrate the results of a proof of concept work effort the summer of 2018, showing that using Scala on z/OS is possible. The video shows the following [...]
Do vs. Should: Eric Denna's CIO Questions
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip continues with Dr. Eric Denna. Last week Eric shared the five questions he starts with as a new CIO in a job. They are: Whom do we serve, [...]
Innocence as a Virtue, or the Five Questions: Conversation with Eric Denna Part 3
In today's segment of my conversation with Dr. Eric Denna, we cover Eric's Five Questions for a CIO, developed over Dr. Denna's five times serving as CIO, helping organizations understand customers, service, measurement, delivery and [...]
Taking a Risk: Conversation with Eric Denna Part 2
Second in our series of a conversation with Dr. Eric Denna, covering Dr. Denna's early career, and how taking a risk can result in dramatic outcomes. Taking risks is part of life. And risk measurement [...]
Teacher-Student Interactions: A Conversation with Dr. Eric Denna
Today is the 200th Episode of Conversations with Kip. As a tribute, I am starting to release a set of segments of my conversation 18 months ago with Dr. Eric Denna, perhaps my first professional [...]
Who’s Invited to Innovate?
This week let's discuss the innovation process. I've found that meetings, particularly face-to-face meetings, can be very helpful in finding ways to solve difficult problems through innovation. A face-to-face meeting helps to focus the participants [...]
Project Plan Basics
This week I discuss the basic points needed in any project management process, including what, who, how, when and why. The What All projects I think begin with a description of What the project is [...]
Estimates of Chart of Account Elements
Dr. William McCarthy recently asked me, "Can you guess for me: What is the average G/L code block size in small, medium, and large enterprises? And what is the average number of G/L accounts in [...]
Sample Ledger Data in a Bank Statement
In this week's conversation, I use a simple financial statement to give a sense of the data structures involved in any true ledger. Any financial statement gives a good sense of the data structures involved [...]
Our Need for New Financial Systems
This week's conversation likens James Madison's work prior to the US Constitutional Convention to some of my work on financial systems. In 1786 Mr. Madison spent perhaps four months preparing for the US Constitutional Convention [...]
Value of Consumer Financial Data
This week's Conversation with Kip discusses the value of financial data, compared to clickstream data value. Many very large businesses have found tremendous success in using clickstream and similar data, selling insights to businesses based [...]
Batch verses Streaming Analytical Application
This week's episode discusses the nature of batch vs. streaming analytical applications, and the relationship to balance creation and history requirements. Analytical processes are moment in time processes; one creates a balance which says at [...]
Brief ERP Ledger Evaluation Criteria
This week I give the most brief set of criteria I can think of for ledger evaluation. Ledgers give us information in the form of balances. The number of balances it can maintain and the [...]
An Approach to Legacy System Analysis
Understanding tabulating system principles can be very powerful in analyzing legacy systems, even though card readers have not been used extensively for perhaps 40 years or more. In this post I'll describe an approach I [...]
What My Children Think I Do for Work
January 2nd 2020 marks my 30 year anniversary for my job. I began work with Price Waterhouse, which became PricewaterhouseCoopers; IBM purchased the consulting division in October 2002. So I have 30 continuous years of [...]
Feelings about Business Travel
This week's episode discusses my feelings about business travel, and what business travel is really like. In a presentation eighteen months ago, I talked to some high school students about business travel. You can hear [...]
Computing Trends and Financial Systems
This week's episode of Conversation with Kip discusses historical trends in computing and the impact (or lack thereof) on major financial systems, including cloud, mobile, internet, and ERP. The latest major change in business systems [...]
Match-Merge or High Speed Joins
This Coding with Kip episode explains a very old approach to doing join processes, called a match-merge. Match-merge required the data files to be joined be in sort order by the key. In a sense [...]
The Problem with Financial Systems: An Overview
This week I release a discussion I had on the fundamental problems with financial systems held in Bangalore, India on April 10, 2018. To make the concept more approachable, I use personal financial examples to [...]
Simple Financial System Proof of Concept
In order to make my vlog and blog more useful, I have started a new video series call Coding with Kip. The format of this series will be more technically focused, and will be a [...]
Blockchain, Trust and Efficiency
Currencies are interlinked with trust, and always have been. Trusted relationships are the most efficient relationships, and provide the best basis for prediction. When we have trust, we have predictability. Currency really is all about [...]
Specific Inventory, Time and Balances
Some ledgers track specific inventory, specific items. This is particularly true for high value assets, like the leasing business. In these instances, ledgers are used to track these specific assets. Much of the world of [...]
Computer Efficiency and Consistent Data Structures
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip deals with the computer efficiencies that can be gained through consistent data structures. Analytical processes typically aggregate or combine data in some way. To understand our spending over [...]
Flipping Personal Financial Management Processes
This week's episode discusses our personal financial management systems These systems have historically required recording the data after the transaction has occurred. They are independent of the transaction systems, and have always been in a [...]
Data Implications of Allocation Processes
This week I conclude the allocation series by discussion how data at the intersection of cost and target data causes an explosion in data volumes in allocation processes. Last week we discussed this diagram in [...]
Allocation Processing Steps
This week's episode shows the general steps of an allocation processes, from transactions to balances and back down to transactions. This graphic gives a sense of how the data flows for an allocation process. [...]
Allocation and Activities
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip continues the allocation series, discussing activity based costing, and how activities can be the drivers for allocating costs to other metrics. Activities in allocation processes, are drivers of [...]
Complexity of Allocation Processes
Allocation processes often deal with estimates because at times we are dealing with the future, and the future is not yet known. For example, in the case of allocating the costs of building a factory [...]
Introduction to the Allocation Series
A somewhat specialized financial system process is called allocation. As noted in this introduction to the series, usually financial reporting is about accumulating business events to measure things over time. But allocation processes establish relationships [...]
Computer Efficiency and Lazy Programmers
This week's episode focuses on the trade off between efficient programs and lazy programmers. A choice can be made when generalizing some problems to ask the computer to make a set of choices that the [...]
Shared Ledger R&D Results: A Recent Expert Review
Today I'm releasing what I think is a very comprehensive view of my work efforts over the last number of years on ledger reinvention. This is a video filmed in May at a presentation to [...]
Business Rules, Source Data, and Code Synchronization
This week's episode discusses how (1) source or transactional data, (2) reference data and rules, and (3) the application engine must be synchronized to arrive at the desired answers. To produced ledgers, metric engine environments [...]
Business Rules & ERP Integration
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip continues the discussion of reference data in our financial system, specifically discussing how a great deal of reference data is embedded in ERP systems, but use of that [...]
Developing and Testing Business Rules
This week's episode ties together the "Requirements are in the Data" and "Show me the Money" videos with the structure and nature of rules, and how those have to be developed. The intersection of business [...]
Business Rules vs. Reference Data
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip discusses the need to maintain lists of reference data values, that then are embedded into various rules, and the impact if those are not valid values. Reference data [...]
Business Rule Structures
This week we begin a series of videos to discuss business rules in the finance system. Today's episode discusses the general structure of business rules, either table or if-then-else structures, and compares and contrasts those [...]
Quantum Benefits: A Conversation with Rakesh Kant
In this episode Rakesh Kant, an expert on financial and reporting systems, and I discussed briefly what is likely to propel the quantum benefits needed to transform our financial systems. Quantum benefits are required in [...]
Financial System Migration Approach: A Conversation with Rakesh Kant
This is the fifth segment of a Conversation with Rakesh Kant, an expert on financial and reporting systems, in Lucknow, India, April 15, 2018, discussing how to overcome the cost of migration to these new [...]
Hardest Part of the Problem: Conversation with Rakesh Kant
Fourth segment of a Conversation with Rakesh Kant, an expert on financial and reporting systems, in Lucknow, India, April 15, 2018. Here Rakesh responds to the question what is the hardest part of solving the [...]
Human Scale of Reporting: A Conversation with Rakesh Kant
In the third segment of a Conversation with Rakesh Kant, an expert on financial and reporting systems, in Lucknow, India, April 15, 2018, we discuss that reporting requires that large amounts of data have to [...]
DNA to Solve the Problem: A Conversation with Rakesh Kant
This is the 2nd segment of a Conversation with Rakesh Kant, an expert on financial and reporting systems, in Lucknow, India, April 15, 2018. This segment highlights the the most important attribute needed to work [...]
A Conversation with Rakesh Kant: Right Hand Side, Left Hand Side
This week I begin a series of segments of a Conversation with Rakesh Kant, an expert on financial and reporting systems, recorded in Lucknow, India, April 15, 2018. This initial video frames the discussion of [...]
Required Skill: Desire to Work on the Problem
This week I discuss the most important skill needed to work on reinvention of ledger based processes: Desire to do so. Financial Systems were some of the very first to be automated; they are rule [...]
Balances in Financial Services Sectors
This week's episode focuses on the data required three major financial services sectors, Financial Markets, Banking, and Insurance, focusing on the need for various balances, and length of time in perspectives. Financial Markets--effective any traded [...]
What is Money?
This week's episode debunks the idea that money is an exchangeable precious metal, or requires some type of mining per many virtual currency systems. Certainly what money is has changed over the centuries, but what [...]
Social Commerce: Family Independence Initiative
A friend introduced me to an interesting podcast recently, with Maurico Miller, which touches on many of the themes I am detecting in the move to put social commerce/social banking on top of social media. [...]
Proposed TED Talk for High School Freshman: Ledger Innovation
I recently was asked to present for a second time about my career to a local high school freshman class, and wondered if I could make the subject matter interesting. So I spoke in the [...]
Tabulating System Metadata
In the final episode about how many of our financial systems are based upon tabulating system principles, we'll discuss how to detect more specific information about those specific programs. Finding the posting programs within tabulating [...]
Data Discovery in Tabulating Systems
Yesterday I came upon an article about some guys saving an IBM 360 Model 20 mainframe from the 1960's. It seems appropriate to think about the system architecture which would have worked on that machine [...]
Complexity in Tabulating Systems
When investigating systems, often legacy financial and business systems, my simple descriptions in the prior videos begin to break down as we dive deeper: these systems are not always simple. Here's what to look for [...]
Posting Processes in Tabulating Systems
Continuing our series on how many of today's financial systems are fundamentally tabulating systems in nature, today we'll discuss where posting processes fit in these systems. (See prior post Series Introduction, and Tabulating System Program [...]
Tabulating System Program Structure
Continuing our series on the principles behind tabulating system, let's discuss the basic program structure. Perhaps some of the first tabulating systems were developed before the idea of structured programming, but this pattern for program [...]
Spaghetti Code or Tabulating System?
Today's episode of Conversations with Kip introduces a set of videos around the term Spaghetti Code. Many systems are not understood by today's developers because they do not understand the principles of the underlying systems. [...]
Three Year Anniversary Bloopers: Choosing a Vlog Topic
After three years of nearly weekly episodes of Conversations with Kip, we take a break to look at how I choose a Vlog Topic. Usually I first identify an interesting location in which to film, [...]
Where are We Going? Final Conversation with Tata Rao
This week we'll conclude the series of conversations with Tata Rao, previously Lead Architect of a Global Financial Services Financial System Platform. I asked Tata where our systems are going. His response was three part: [...]
Movement vs. Balances: A Conversation with Tata Rao
Today's episode is the second in a three part series of conversations with Tata Rao, at the time Lead Architect of a Global Financial Services Financial System Platform, covering data volume explosion in a consolidated [...]
Daily Financial Cycle: A Conversation with Tata Rao
This week's episode is the first of a series of conversations with Tata Rao, previously the lead architect of a financial system for a global bank, and an expert on demands of the daily financial [...]
Your Data is Key to Your New ERP Package
As Pete Galbo told me a few years ago as we discussed a client who had embarked on a long journey of evaluating ERP packages for General Ledger and related reporting problems, "Unfortunately, you can't [...]
ERP Package: User Interface and Your Data
In my career, I have found that even for the largest organizations ERP packages create a great deal of value in two primary areas: They constrain choices in design and provide business process templates, thus [...]
The Have It Your Way ERP Package
Contrasting with last week's prescriptive ERP Package approach, the other major vendor uses an integration approach to the problem. This ERP Vendor grew through acquisition of various products, and integrated them. This means that often [...]
ERP Package: My Way or Highway
This week's episode characterizes one type of ERP Vendor often used in major corporations for finance functions, which is highly integrated but also quite prescriptive in approach. Vendor's specialize in particular processes or industries; competition [...]
Vendor Choice in ERP Selection
This week's episode is in response to a request from Brazil to assist a customer in ERP package selection. The first point I make when approaching such a question is asking the customer to be [...]
“Show Me the Money” with Jim Hladyshewsky
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip is a conversation with Jim Hladyshewsky about his first assignment with the SAFR team, called "Show me the Money", what now might be called a data science method [...]
Blockchain Gap: Trust and Efficiency
I've taken a few weeks break from the blog, considering what to do next about financial systems. Today's video though makes clear the major gap I see in blockchain. Trust is at the core of [...]
Blockchain Gap: Posting Process
We've discussed the blockchain gaps of liquidity management, double entry accounting, and reporting integration. This week's episode discusses posting processes. The purpose of posting processes is almost forgotten in today's world of ubiquitous computing. But [...]
Blockchain Gap: Reporting Integration
Today's episode is in response to a question from Steven Ulmer about the challenges of reporting using Blockchain. The development of papyrus in ancient Egypt was a breakthrough technology, but today if one needs to [...]
Blockchain Gap: Double Entry Model
Almost everyone knows that accounting deals with debits and credits; but many fewer people know what the purpose of those are. The purpose of a ledger was to show a position as of a point [...]
Blockchain Gap: Liquidity Management, the Core of Banking
Banking at its core is the process of matching illiquid loans against liquid deposits. Blockchain is very focused on tracking individual items, perhaps loans for example; probably less on tracking individual deposits. Yet this process [...]
Consider the Punch Card
Today's banking and financial systems were by and large automated in the 1970s and early 1980; the process began in the late 1950 and through the 1960s. I find it helpful to reduce the problem [...]
ERP Systems and Reporting Processes
ERP systems perhaps were to deliver on three promises; Automate more business processes; perhaps approaching all of them. ERP systems have added great automation to a lot of new business processes since their introduction 25+ [...]
Recap of Steps in Estimating Reporting Processes
This week's episode concludes our multi-week series on estimating reporting processes. Remember as I opened the series I spoke of a project where one of a dozen critical daily reports was not able to be [...]
Final Step: Aggregate or Post to Produce Reports
Reporting from transactional detail is the most flexible thing possible. But it also is the most expensive because of data volumes. Our approach has been to test if we could use transactional data to produce [...]
Step 4: Evaluate Performance of Reporting Process
After performing some tests to determine run times for reports given a potential hardware environment (as described last week in Step 3), the next step is to evaluate the results. Remember, I've suggested that the [...]
Financial Reporting Qualities
What makes a good accountant, and good financial reports? Qualities of good financial reports are well known by those who produce, but we seldom discuss the attributes of those who produce them. Kip Twitchell, the [...]
Step 3: System Performance in Estimating Reporting Processes
Build an initial model of performance by bringing together the statistics gathered in steps 1 and 2
Step 2: Report Characteristics in Estimating Reporting Processes
Gather statistics about the reports to be produced.
Step 1: Transactions needed for a Metric Engine
Gather statistics about business events (transactions), frequencies, and static or reference data to be needed for the reporting domain.
Computers Explained: Big Data Implications
This week's episode continues last week's meeting analogy, discussing the impact of big data on how a computer works, and the need for access to the data can significantly impact how much of the "big [...]
Computers Explained: The Meeting Analogy
In business computing, it's simple to break types of work done into two broad categories: (1) Transaction Capture and (2) Reporting Processes. The amount of code supporting transaction capture processes is likely much more extensive [...]
Do the Math: Estimating Reporting Processes
Applied math allows us to predict the future in many ways. I've had many mentors that have asked me over the years as they reviewed my approach to problems: "Have you done the math?" Daniel [...]
Have Courage
On Saturday a good friend and work colleague passed away after a tremendous fight with cancer, Jeff Wolfers. When I think of Jeff, the words "have courage" come to mind. Jeff did not [...]
Finance Costs: Data Integration and Curation
Two weeks ago we talked about how Reconciliation drives financial system costs. Last week we discussed Data Fragmentation's impact. This week we consider that in response to both of these, we spend a great [...]
Finance Costs: Data Fragmentation
Today we'll consider how our finance data has ended up so fragmented. Blaise Pascal noted it takes more time to write a shorter letter than a longer one. It is very challenging to summarize [...]
A Major Driver of Finance Costs: Reconciliation
Today's episode discusses a major cost driver for finance departments, reconciliation, and how to eliminate it. Reconciliation is the process of agreeing that two sets of books or reports contain the same data. It is [...]
Finance Department Costs Overview
In this episode of Conversations with Kip, I highlight that the costs of the financial systems far exceeds the ongoing cost of the finance department. As I have explained this in talking about finance system [...]
Historical Accounting’s View of Blockchain Ledgers
In the final segment of the Historical Accounting Series, today's episode comments on what really is a ledger, and how they benefit us. All the major books of historically bookkeeping are still with us in [...]
The Ledger: The Last Book of Bookkeeping
This week we examine the last book of historical bookkeeping, the Ledger, which presents the position as of some point in time. The first book of bookkeeping, the Day Book (today's source systems) gives a [...]
The Journal in Historical Accounting
This week's episode examines the second book of historical bookkeeping, the Journal. The journal turns business transactions into debits and credits, reflecting the flow of money through the categories of accounting, Assets, Liabilities, Equtiy, which [...]
The Day Book in Historical Accounting
This week's episode takes a deeper look at the Day Book, the first book defined in historic Bookkeeping, the original book of record for transactions. The Day Book today is called operational systems, which records [...]
Spread of Bookkeeping
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip discusses the spread of accounting knowledge throughout Europe, and the commonality of the books defined as part of bookkeeping. The knowledge spread was quite consistent; each textbook discussed [...]
Pacioli’s Summary of Bookkeeping
This week's video looks over Pacioli's summary bookkeeping, and points out how complete the bookkeeping cycle is documented. Below is Jerry Cripps translated version the summary. The full translation can be found here. This is [...]
Pacioli Trial Balance and Closing
This week's video gives an overview of each chapter in Luca Pacioli's seminal bookkeeping treatise, and focuses on the last steps of the accounting cycle. Pacioli covered many special topics of accounting, including partnership accounting, [...]
Pacioli and Blockchain
This vlog episode connects Pacioli's comments on reconciling multiple books to today's interest in blockchain technologies. Pacioli, in his treatise on bookkeeping written in 1494, talks about transactions with various parties, including taxes to the [...]
Pacioli and Meticulousness in Bookkeeping
The emphasis on being accurate in bookkeeping is evident in the first treatise about it, written in 1494 by Luca Pacioli. He reiterates in numerous places things that can make the books more accurate, cleaner, [...]
Pacioli, Debits and Credits
In our continuing exploration of Luca Pacioli's documentation of bookkeeping in 1494, this weeks' video highlights the purpose of Debits and Credits. Bookkeeping has a flow to it. Like raw materials through a production line, [...]
Gratitude for Teachers, and Career Advice to High Schoolers
Today I was asked to present to a math class at a local high school how my career had developed, and some advice on how they might think about college and future work. Perhaps [...]
The Three Books of Bookkeeping
Luca Pacioli described three books to be used in bookkeeping in his 1494 treaties: The Day Book, the Journal, and the Ledger. All three of these "books" typically exist in modern financial systems. The Day [...]
Pacioli Starts Bookkeeping with an Inventory
Luca Pacioli started the bookkeeping process by describing how to take an inventory of things. This is because financial reporting begins with the Balance Sheet. Although earnings gets all the attention in financial analysis, earnings [...]
Luca Pacioli & Business Ethics
This week's video begins to digest the bookkeeping portion of Pacioli's book, talking about his focus on being ethical, and why that is important. Pacioli, in the first page of discussing bookkeeping, says: "In the [...]
A Look at Luca Pacioli’s “Summa de Arithemtica”
Today's episode gives a view at the number of pages in Pacioli's 1494 work, Summary of Arithmetic, which documented bookkeeping. His book is most famous for the bookkeeping section, but it is a very small [...]
What can one learn from Historical Bookkeeping?
This week I begin a series of episodes that highlight the earliest documentation of bookkeeping, and what we can learn from it. Bookkeeping was first documented by Luca Pacioli, a Franciscan Friar in Venice, Italy [...]
Bloopers: Two Year’s of Conversations with Kip
Today marks the two year anniversary of Conversations with Kip. Financial systems are not all that entertaining to most people. I thought I'd make it a bit more humorous by showing a few bloopers in [...]
Improved Financial Reporting: A 30 Year Problem for me
As I approach two years of my vlog, I thought reflecting on its purpose might be helpful. I've been working on how to improve financial reporting for 30 years this fall, when I took Eric [...]
A Conversation with Alex Hume
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip is a conversation with Alex Hume, a controller at a large regional bank, discussing data and three simple ideas: (1) Choose a language. Data is about communication. Communication [...]
Gratitude for Great Teams
A few weeks ago Rick Houlihan posted a link about great teams. I then had a number of encounters with team members I still work with, and some I have worked with in the past. [...]
Social Commerce and Financial Information
I've discussed Trust as a measure of efficiency, Social Commerce may soon lead to Social Risk Pools, and then Social Currencies that are based upon trust. The last needed element to see these trends realized [...]
Social Currencies: Based on Social Trust
Two weeks ago I discussed Trust as a measure of efficiency. Last week I noted that Social Commerce may soon lead to Social Risk Pools. These two trends then may then lead to Social Currencies. [...]
Social Risk Pools and Fintech
Our last conversation introduced the idea that trustworthiness generates the highest efficiencies for those involved. Today'ss conversation builds on that idea, introducing the idea of Social Risk Pools. Financial Services is the process of managing [...]
Social Benefits of Trustworthiness
To many, trustworthiness seems pretty old fashioned; so old that it is perceived as a competitive disadvantage. Someone who doesn't care about honesty can do anything they like; they aren't constrained in their choices. This [...]
Conversation with Randall: History of Geneva and SAFR
This week's episode is a conversation with the Chief Architect of the Geneva, later IBM's SAFR (Scalable Architecture for Financial Reporting) Product, about its history and the principles behind it. SAFR was highly influenced by [...]
Data Discovery: Show me the money
This week's discussion outlines a very effective form of data discovery, but one which I find is not usually employed. It uses financial knowledge to understand the relationship of transactions to balances. This relationship would [...]
A Quantitative-Cognitive Architecture
Besides the recent trend of Blockchain, another major current theme is cognitive systems. The intersection of these two areas requires understanding the nature and structure of data that support both. Blockchain, as distributed ledgers, will [...]
Balances are the Inventory of Finance
Two decades ago, manufacturers learned that by moving to just-in-time inventory, they could significantly reduce cost by eliminating inventory. Inventory requires forecasting demand, with all the potential errors associated with obsolescence or missed opportunities, as [...]
Apache Spark Transaction Generation and Balance Posting
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip concludes our discussion of Apache Spark and a Data Supply Chain. In the first, we discussed data input choices; the second discussed the consolidation of data after a [...]
Apache Spark Parallelism and Financial Analytics
This week we continue the Apache Spark usefulness and limitations for financial analytics. Last week we discussed input data formats. This week we focus on consolidation of financial data. Indexed access typically helps when searching [...]
Apache Spark IO and Index Access
In the next three week's episodes of Conversations with Kip, I focus on Apache Spark, a technology that recognizes the power of scanning large transactional data sets to produce analytical outputs. This week we focus [...]
Customer Profitability: A Conversation with Ewan Puckle Hobbs
For the last five years, I've talked about issues I was taught about by Ewan Puckle Hobbs; specifically measurement of major enterprise transformations, or more directly customer profitability. He helped broaden my perspective from simply [...]
A Mentor Memorial: Douglas F. Kunkel
December 5th 2017 marks the five year passing of my good friend and a mentor Doug Kunkel. Doug was an unusual man in that he was a partner in a large, international accounting firm, but [...]
Financial System Controls, Services, and History
Today we conclude our series on Historical IBM Videos, and how they inform us of what tomorrow's systems must do. I'm releasing four videos: The first explores the current implication of the control and reconciliation [...]
Ledger Posting Processes in 1959
Today's episode of Conversations with Kip focuses on the posting process, as discussed in the Historical IBM Banking System Videos. Posting is the process of reading a set of sorted transactions and the corresponding balances [...]
Sorting in Today’s Ledger Based Processes
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip focuses on the portions of the IBM Historical Banking Movies that discuss sorting processes. Sorting is still a very significant portion of structured data, ledger based processes. Sorting [...]
Modern Day Data Capture Processes
This week's episode of Conversation with Kip explores the current implication of the data capture processes shown in the IBM Historical Banking Movies, including the 1977 IBM Historical Optical Character Recognition System. Our systems today [...]
Financial Reporting in 1961
Today's episode of Conversations with Kip explores what financial reporting looked like in 1961 using an IBM historical film, "The IBM MICR Banking Solution" and the 1959 video already released. Within this video you'll get [...]
1959 IBM Historical Banking System Abridged Technical Solution
This week we continue our exploration of the historical IBM films about early financial systems, beginning to focus on the technical components from last week's released video. (1) The first processes shown is encoding; today [...]
Industry Leadership in Financial Services
I recently was given some videos from the IBM Archives about early automation in financial services. I'll release a number of these over the coming weeks, exploring what we can learn from the earliest days [...]
Instrument ID and the Coming Social Commerce Platform
This week's episode is the final in a series of videos about the coming social banking/social commerce platform. A fundamental change in data and posting architecture will be key to making this real: one aspect [...]
Blockchain, Metric Engines and the Coming Social Commerce Platform
In many of my earliest videos (and actually in a monograph I've written) I've proposed that the next evolution in structured data analysis is like a search engine, but one which performs calculations, which creates [...]
Analytics, Blockchain and the Coming Social Commerce Platform
This week's episode points out that Analytical processes start with balances. We don't open a bank statement and look at transactions, and ATM's don't have menu options that show us the last 300 transactions: we [...]
Blockchain and the Next Generation ERP Systems
This week's episode of my vlog discusses how Blockchain functionality may help us envision what the next generation of ERP systems may look like. Blockchain can be applied to any type of transaction data that [...]
Financial Transactions in the Coming Social Commerce Platform
This week's episode of my vlog notes that all financial analytics begin with understanding balances; in very few cases do we go looking for a transaction. Rather, we first want to understand what our position [...]
Blockchain and the Coming Social Commerce Platform
This week's episode discusses commerce in coming Social Banking Platform, or perhaps what should be called the Social Commerce Platform. The data processing needs at the bottom of both banking and commerce are in large [...]
Blockchain and the Social in the Coming Social Banking Platform
This week's episode contrasts what can be done in social media, with the lack of such abilities in today's "social" banking ideas, particularly around our data, our desires to form connections and share our data, [...]
Blockchain, Credibility and the Coming Social Banking Platform
This week's episode builds on the idea of how Blockchain can radically alter the world of commerce, starting with financial services. It focuses on how credibility of data and social connections will have to be [...]
The Coming Social Commerce Platform Data Structures
This week's episode starts a series of videos discussing the coming social banking or social commerce platforms that may well transform the world as much as the Internet did. It begins by discussing the fundamental [...]
Blockchain, Monolithic Core Banking, and Finance and Risk Systems
This week's episode questions if the core banking systems are really a barrier standing between blockchain disruption and the finance, risk and other systems, or will the impact go beyond those externally facing systems. A [...]
Blockchain, Ledgers, Journals and Posting
Transactions have traditionally been recorded as journals in the General Journal, not the Ledger. A true Ledger requires a posting process, something not considered in Bitcoin's blockchain. Episode 75 of Conversations with Kip, the best [...]
A Conversation with Mauricio Magaldi Suguihura
This week's Conversation with Kip is an actual conversation with #MaurÃcio Magaldi Suguihura, an IBM consultant, about financial data, behavioral analytics, and IFRS 15 and the needs and uses of more detailed quantitative data. Episode [...]
Artificial Intelligence and Reclass
I happy to be able to announce a new set of on-line training courses around my series and my books. You can access them at finsysvlogger.thinkific.com. They are free. They include courses on simple accounting [...]
Data Normalization and Reclass Processes
This week's episode outlines how normalization of data can affect reclass processes. Episode 72 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it here https://youtu.be/au700995znY
Backdating and Reclassification Processes
As if Reclassification Processes weren't complex enough, this week's video gives a perspective on how complex they become when they intersect with backdating processes. Episode 71 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog [...]
The Reclass View in Reclassifications
This week's Reclassification Problem episode defines what a "Reclass View" looks like, wherein new business events are generated based upon changes in reference data. Episode 70 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog [...]
Reclass Effective Date Joins for Reclass Processes
This week's episode continues exploring reclassification problems, and shows how date effective joins can provide the ability to do both a switch and a reclass view of data. Episode 69 of Conversations with Kip, the [...]
The Recast View in Reclassification Problems
This weeks video continues the series on ugly, hairy monsters, one of which is reclassification problems. This week's episode defines what a "Recast View" looks like from a reclass perspective, wherein data is moved historically, [...]
The Switch View in Reclassification Processes
Defines what a "Switch View" looks like from a reclass perspective, wherein data positions change as of a point in time. Episode 67 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch [...]
Reclassification Problems Overview
This week's episode begins a series of videos discussing problems with reclassification, the problem when attributes assigned to balances change. This is not an easy problem to solve; it's a big, hairy monster, and it [...]
Post Reductionism and Financial Services
This week's episode discusses how organization of IT systems based upon historical perspectives may be impeding our ability to innovate new solutions in financial data and analytics. Episode 65 of Conversations with Kip, the best [...]
A Conversation with Amit Trehan
This week's episode is a conversation with Amit Trehan, a specialist in finance systems, instrument ledgers, and particularly reconciliation processes. Episode 64 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it [...]
One Year Anniversary: The Making of a Conversation with Kip
This week's episode is a bit of a tongue in cheek look at how I've made my videos on the one year annivesary of the series. You won't learn anything about financial systems in this [...]
Code Sets in the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Architecture
This week's video outlines code set considerations within the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Reference Architecture. Episode 62 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it here. https://youtu.be/vdNs4Ok9iFI
Support Functions in the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Architecture
Discusses the Support Functions area of the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Reference Architecture. Episode 61 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it here. https://youtu.be/0Hi_r_I_H7U
Reporting Layer of the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Architecture
This week's episode focuses on the Reporting layer of the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Reference Architecture. Episode 60 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it here. https://youtu.be/QDpEJlZYD04
Calc Engines in the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Architecture
This week's episode covers the Calculation Engine area of the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Reference Architecture. Episode 59 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it here. https://youtu.be/TTPuGpPri9Q
The GL in the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Architecture
This week's episode focuses on the General Ledger of the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Reference Architecture. Episode 58 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it here. https://youtu.be/RAIXt8FZ4Vc
Expense Sub-ledger Architecture and a Consolidated Data Supply Chain
This week's episode discusses the Expense Subledger layer of the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Reference Architecture. Episode 57 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it here. http://youtu.be/1f4TZIZy9eY
Interface Layer of a Consolidated Data Supply Chain Architecture
This week's episode discusses the Interface layer of the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Reference Architecture. Episode 56 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it here. http://youtu.be/_sTHCW6iW08
Consolidated Data Supply Chain Architecture Overview
This week's episode begins a series on the Consolidated Data Supply Chain Reference Architecture with an overview. Episode 55 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it here. http://youtu.be/zzXO4XQo4QM
Fintech, Blockchain and the Instrument Ledger
Last in a series of five episodes describing Fintech, blockchain or distributed ledgers, and the relationship to an Instrument Ledger. Also points out the performance requirements required for blockchain to become truly useful. Episode 54 [...]
Fintech and True Community Banking
This week's episode is fourth in a series of five episodes describing Fintech and how an Instrument Ledger might enable renewed community or true social banking to become a reality. Episode 53 of Conversations with [...]
Fintech and Personal Financial Management
Third in a series of five episodes describing Fintech and how an Instrument Ledger might enable personal and business financial management. Episode 52 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch [...]
Fintech and Product Control
Second in a series of five episodes describing Fintech and how an Instrument Ledger might enable product and financial control in financial services systems. Episode 51 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog [...]
Fintech and Data Supply Chains
This week's episode is the first in a series of five episodes describing Fintech and how an Instrument Ledger might enable the potential revolution of financial services systems. Episode 50 of Conversations with Kip, the [...]
Financial Services Subledgers and the Instrument Ledger
This week's episode outlines how subledgers, particularly in financial services, have historically played a significant role in traditional data supply chains. It includes a nice little dance routine I wasn't aware was happening over my [...]
Financial Services and Finance Systems History
This week's episode gives a sense of the deep history of financial systems in financial services, including banking, insurance, and capital markets; how subledger proliferation began and its impact. Episode 48 of Conversations with Kip, [...]
A Taxi Driver, Financial Services, and Financial Systems
This week's episode makes the concepts of financial systems a bit more personal from a discussion with a taxi driver about his financial system, compared to the data systems used by taxi a GPS systems. [...]
A Conversation with Jeff Wolfers
A conversation with Jeff Wolfers, a senior executive in IT and financial services. Jeff is a courageous man of integrity and intelligence, and I feel fortunate to be able to publish this to encourage Jeff [...]
Data Discovery: The Requirements are in the Data
This week's episode discusses what the phrase "The Requirements are in the data" means, and how it impacts reporting applications. Episode 45 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it [...]
Cut-in or Add-on Ledgers in Data Supply Chains
This week's episode describes how at times new ledgers are added on to an existing data supply chain, or ledgers in the middle of a data supply chain are replaced. Episode 44 of Conversations with [...]
Data Aging, Hot Warm and Cold and Data Supply Chains
This week's episode outlines how data aging must be used in a metric engine, to include data which can be updated frequently, data updated periodically, and data no longer updated. Episode 43 of Conversations with [...]
Blockchains and Data Supply Chains
This week's episode discusses how the objectives of a consolidated data supply chain a blockchain or distributed ledger work towards many of the same objectives. Episode 42 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system [...]
Step-ups in a Data Supply Chain
This week's episode outlines how step-ups can be used in a consolidated data supply chain to increase the potential scope of the required reports and analysis produced. Episode 41 of Conversations with Kip, the best [...]
Lengths of Data Supply Chains
This week's episode discusses the lengths of data supply chain, which are driven by the number of steps required to produce the required reports and analysis. Episode 40 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial [...]
Data Supply Chain Scope
This week's episode defines a data supply chain scope, or how many reports and analyses can be produced from the data supply chain master file. Episode 39 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system [...]
Details on Temporal Events in Data Supply Chains
This week's episode covers additional details on temporal or time based business events, including for example currency revaluation processes. Episode 38 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it here. [...]
Temporal Events, Posting and Data Supply Chains
This week's episode discusses temporal or time based business events, and their impact on a reporting system and data supply chains. Episode 37 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch [...]
Data Supply Chain Layers
This week's episode discusses Business Event Capture, Post and Store, and Analyze and Report layers of a business system. Episode 36 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch it here. [...]
Management Reporting and Customer Profitability, and Data Supply Chains
This week's episode describes the intersection of Management Reporting or KPI data and Finance, focusing on the enablement of Customer Profitability that would come through a consolidated data supply chain. Episode 35 of Conversations with [...]
Risk Data Requirements and Data Supply Chains
This week's episode describes the intersection of Risk and Financial Data and the differences between them and the associated data supply chains. Episode 34 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. [...]
Continued Impediments to a Metric Engine
This week's video continues the discussion of why more flexible reporting engines, particularly around quantitative data, have not been constructed and implemented more widely. Episode 33 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog [...]
Impediments to a Metric Engine
This week's video discusses why more flexible reporting engines, particularly around quantitative data, have not been constructed and implemented more widely. Episode 32 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. Watch [...]
A Conversation with Richard K. Roth
This week's episode is an actual conversation with Richard K. Roth, retired Price Waterhouse, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and IBM Partner, and expert in financial systems. Episode 31 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there [...]
9-11 Tribute
This week's video, shot at the 9-11 Memorial in New York City this week, is a special episode of Conversations with Kip, reflecting upon the impact and importance of mentors in our work lives. Episode [...]
Special Videos: A Cartoon about Business Systems
This week I'm releasing three videos at once, a historical perspective on our metric and quantitative systems. They center upon a historical film produced by IBM in 1964 called "Once Upon A Punch [...]
Metric Engine Requirements
This week's episode discusses the high standard required to make our quantitative systems more flexible, including levels of detail, timing involved, and potential impact. Episode 26 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog [...]
Metric Engine and Report Process Timing
This week I give more details on reporting processes including describing the alignment of the master file to the report or reports, and the impact upon the daily financial cycle. Episode 25 of Conversations with [...]
Metric Engine and Report Program Steps
This week's video is a simple review of the reporting steps outlined in the prior episode, including selection, sorting, column filtering, calculation, etc. Episode 24 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog [...]
Metric Engine Report Production
This week's video discusses the reporting processes that typically follow the Master File Update, including the steps needed to produce reports. Episode 23 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is. [...]
Metric Engine and Master File Update
This week's video is a simple technical explanation of what a master file update program looks like, applying transactions to balances periodically, a portion of what a Metric Engine has to do. Episode 22 of [...]
Metric Engine, Interim Reporting and Temporal Events
This week's video discusses an exception to the general rule of balances vs. transactions: intra-period posting processes can accumulate new transactions against the prior posted balance to make a temporary balance for reporting and analysis. [...]
Metric Engine and a Detailed Identifier
This week's video describes what might be called an "Arrangement ID", a key in the Chart of Balances (or Chart of Account in finance) that would track customer or vendor level balances in an instrument [...]
Metric Engine and Normalization
This week's episode of Conversations with Kip describes data normalization, a data modeling concepts, as it applies to financial systems including business events, transactions, balances and a Metric Engine. Episode 19 of Conversations with [...]
Metric Engine and Joins
This week's episode describes what is meant by a join process, one of the more costly processes a metric engine would need to perform to be realized. This is episode 18 of Conversations with [...]
The Power of Step-ups
Describes how step-ups can be very powerful in building a true metric engine; without being tied to specific reports or even to finance functions. They can be used for any posted balance desired. [...]
Metric Engine and Step-ups
Step-ups are a type of balance that are very flexible for reporting, but not so specific they only satisfy one report. In video I introduce what they are, and how they might be used [...]
Metric Engine and Cow Path of Reporting
In this week's video I explore how reporting often develops like a cow path: a course set initially that can never be changed. We are challenged to think of how we might make report processes [...]
Metric Engine and the Chart of Accounts
Describes a key data concept in structured, quantitative reporting: the attributes assigned for the primary posting key. Notes the importance for an enterprise view including non-finance data supply chains. Episode 14 of Conversations [...]
Introduction to a Metric Engine
My new video describes what a metric engine--as opposed to a search engine--would look like. Think of your world before or without a search engine; how difficult getting information would be. But [...]
ERP Posting Processes
In this episode of Conversations with Kip, I outline how an ERP environment is also based upon posting processes, how it accumulates data from business processes into the financial system, and the resulting reconciliation processes [...]
Data Warehouse vs. Finance System
In this week's video I describe the differences between a financial system and a data warehouse, and explain why even though the data warehouse often contains financial data, it often does not reconcile with the [...]
The Why of Business Events
This week's vlog post explains why I'm talking about financial and analytical systems. It gives a sense of the problems I continue to see in this spaces; I think systems which understand the importance [...]
Data Supply Chains Defined
I've released Episode 9 of Conversations with Kip, Data Supply Chain Defined here YouTube Video Link. It covers Finance, Performance Management, Risk and Customer Analytics, and briefly shows the impact of them on [...]
The Daily Financial Cycle
Check out a new Financial System video on The Daily Financial Cycle by @finsysvlogger YouTube Video Link here. It describes the attributes used in the General Ledger, the processes around its daily update, and the [...]
The Big Idea: Eliminate Posting
This video was released without a corresponding Linkedin Blog Entry. This is episode 7 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is https://youtu.be/72m_oUZua2M
Posting and Business Processes
This video was released without a corresponding Linkedin Blog Entry. This is episode 6 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is https://youtu.be/eQKM_xKPsGI
Timing of the Posting Process
This video was released without a corresponding Linkedin Blog Entry. This is episode 5 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is https://youtu.be/Eke4_ps5h7k
Posting Processes
This video was released without a corresponding Linkedin Blog Entry. This is episode 4 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is https://youtu.be/lv6H7KDw_zo
Business Events and Tranparency
This video was released without a corresponding Linkedin Blog Entry. This is episode 3 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is https://youtu.be/sfCxRSa86iU
Business Events and Measurement
This video was released without a corresponding Linkedin Blog Entry. This is episode 2 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is https://youtu.be/BQgw98Mo-2s
Unstructured Data and Business Events
This video was released without a corresponding Linkedin Blog Entry. This is episode 1 of Conversations with Kip, the best financial system vlog there is https://youtu.be/a_6UWGxqIq8